ASPA is preparing to release shortly a report by co-authors Thomas H. Stanton, Alan B. Rhinesmith and Michael E. Easterly analyzing federal credit programs. The report finds that federal credit programs need to focus on outcomes so they can strike a balance between providing credit for those who need it and not harming borrowers by burdening them with debt they cannot pay back.

The report's findings include:

Today's high volumes of federal credit raise the question: Do some programs need to shift their credit standards so that borrowers with the riskiest loans have better outcomes?

Many federal programs do not collect sufficient data and evaluate borrower outcomes to improve their programs.

Defaults can cause great harm to borrowers not adequately prepared to take on more debt.

The report states that, "Instead of measuring success by the volume of credit they provide, programs need to ask: How much did our work improve circumstances for our borrowers? Above all, programs need to avoid extending credit to borrowers who cannot handle their debt burdens."

The report is based on research conducted through more than 40 interviews with federal credit managers, financial officers and others; and a thorough literature review looking at the economics, history and budget rules of federal credit programs. Report findings were gathered after analysis of a variety of federal loan programs including the Federal Direct Student Loan Program, the Federal Housing Administration single-family mortgage insurance program, Small Business Association loan programs, the U.S. Department of Energy title XVII program and the VA home loan program, among others.

A variety of recommendations were included within the report, which concludes: "With a focus on outcomes, federal loan and loan guarantee programs can approach the goal of smaller but more effective government needed for agencies to succeed in today's budget environment."

ASPA is pleased to announce 22 doctoral students and new professors have been selected to attend the 2017 International Young Scholars Workshop in Chennai, India at Hindustan University, July 11-15. Their research and participation will focus on the theme of "Advancing Public Sector Solutions in an Era of Change and Strengthening the Commitment of Evidence Based Research in Public Policy and Administration."

This year's Workshop is supported by the Kothai Arumugam Charity Foundation, which was founded in 2014 and focuses on bridging the gap between accessibility and affordability in education for the needy. Since its founding, the foundation has enabled primary school and college education for nearly 100 children.

"These doctoral students and new professors are dedicated to rigorous public administration research," said 2017-2018 ASPA President Janice Lachance, lead advisor for the workshop. "We're bringing these academicians to Chennai to expose them to their peers' research as they examine evidence based research around the globe. This experience will provide them with the opportunity to broaden their networks and elevate public administration scholarship, adding to the genius that already exists within ASPA's membership."

"Each Young Scholars class conducts remarkable research that goes on to have a considerable impact within public administration," Lachance said. "I am looking forward to watching how their research and experience on the ground in India changes our understanding of public administration around the world, increases our Society's reach and enhances the knowledge base that is already so dominant within our ranks."

ASPA's professional development webinars are ongoing throughout the year. Averaging 75 attendees per webinar and free to ASPA members, these e-learning opportunities provide you with valuable insights and information at your fingertips. Visit our website to stay in the loop about all upcoming webinars, BookTalks and Student Series.

The next installment of the Center for Accountability and Performance's webinar series will take a look at presenting data effectively, including data visualization, targeting your audience, making simple charts, graphs and tables and presenting qualitative data.

There's no question that Americans are bitterly divided by politics. But in Partisans and Partners, author Josh Pacewicz finds that our traditional understanding of red/blue, right/left, urban/rural division is too simplistic. He looks to two cities, one traditionally Democratic, the other traditionally Republican, and finds that younger voters are rejecting older-timers' strict political affiliations. Changes are coming not from politicians and voters, but from the fundamental reorganization of the community institutions in which political parties have traditionally been rooted.

This webinar is always a sell-out! Back by popular demand, Bill Shields will help students, new professionals and anyone else interested learn how to use their resume to market themselves on the page. There are different perspectives and views on resumes—what should be on them, what shouldn't, how long they should be, what they should cover... The answers you get depend on whom you ask. Bill will share with you his guidelines and answer your questions to help ensure your resume is top-notch!

ASPA staff have recently returned from the Midwest Public Affairs Conference (MPAC), which was jointly held with the Teaching Public Administration Conference and the Social Equity Leadership Conference in Omaha. Not only was it refreshing to travel to a different part of the country for a few days, but also ASPA staff enjoyed meeting new people who had not yet been introduced to the ASPA community.

No matter your region—in the U.S. or abroad—now is the time to start talking about the value of these regional gatherings with your friends and colleagues. Doing so not only builds prestige for our discipline as a whole, but also it means next year we will see even more fresh faces who are interested in these regional gatherings, ASPA and our groups—Chapters, Sections, Districts and more!

Share your excitement now—and throughout the year. We will all reap the rewards later!

ASPA is pleased to announce that Rutgers University—Newark MPA student Yingxiao Wu is interning with us this summer as she finishes her Master's degree in public administration and public policy. Assisting our membership, communications and events staff, Yingxiao is assisting with some much needed database upkeep as well as our events and communications programming.

Yingxiao is an exchange student at Rutgers via Renmin University of China and will graduate shortly after her internship is completed. Her interests are in policy analysis, project management, public sector organization and more. Having served as an editor, class president and conference organizer, she is an ideal intern to assist ASPA with our many needs.

The biennial Lien International Conference for Good Governance will take place in Singapore, Oct. 27-28, 2017. Hosted by the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, the conference is organized with ASPA and IIAS. The 2017 theme will be Forging Toward an Inclusive and Sustainable Globalization. Calls for papers have been announced and all proposals are due tomorrow, June 15, 2017; more information and proposal forms can be found online. Registration will open in July. Click here for more information.

The Zambian Society for Public Administration (ZSPA) will be hosting the International Conference on Performance and Strategic Management, June 20-23, 2017 at Radisson Blue Hotel, Lusaka Zambia. The conference aims to bring together leading academicians, researchers, scholars and practitioners to exchange and share their experiences and research results about all aspects of performance and strategic management. Click here for more information.

Registration is open for the Center for State and Local Finance's 2017-18 executive education program. Course offerings include eight essential classes that span a variety of topics public finance professionals need to hone strategic thinking, advance in the field and educate key stakeholders. The program takes place in Atlanta at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, University of Georgia. Now in its fourth year, the program continually draws participants locally and nationally from state government, municipalities, counties, public authorities and school districts. Visit the center's website for more information and to register for courses. Please contact the Center with any questions.

The National Capital Area Chapter (NCAC) book club will meet on July 19 at 5:30 p.m. ET to discuss Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession by Leonard Wong and Stephen J. Gerras. The authors studied how U.S. Army officers are routinely required to misrepresent, how they cope with it, how pressure to lie undermines the Army's effectiveness and what can be done in these situations. The discussion will begin with the book and then move on to talk about the same issue in other organizations. The book is short (35 pages) and can be downloaded from the Army War College here or purchased in paperback format on Amazon here. Space is limited, so please RSVP in advance for this free event here.

The 2017 Northeast Conference on Public Administration (NECoPA), taking place Nov. 3-5 in Burlington, Vt., has issued its Call for Proposals. Focusing on its theme, Public Administration, Policy and Community Development: Managing a Changing Landscape, the conference will look at local communities' ability to thrive amidst political, social, economic and environmental change. Abstracts are due Aug. 1; applicants will be alerted about decisions by Aug. 18. Click here for more information.

The editorial team for the Journal of Urban Management (JUM) invites scholars across the discipline to submit research to this new publication. In view of the fast urbanization pace worldwide, urban management is emerging as an important interdisciplinary field that covers both public administration and urban planning. JUM is focused on this field with a mission of planning, administering, regulating and governing urban complexity or cities effectively. The journal publishes two issues per year and accepts manuscripts on a rolling basis. Visit its website for more information.

The Section on Ethics and Integrity in Governance (SEI-Gov) and its journal, Public Integrity, announce a day long conference to take place March 9, 2018 at the ASPA Annual Conference in Denver to celebrate its 20th anniversary. More details will be announced shortly on the Section's website.

The latest articles from Public Administration Review are available in the Wiley Online Library.

PAR Podcast

From Birth to Death: The Life of the Standards Board for England
Organizations wax and wane, and some cease to exist altogether. The Standards Board for England was abolished after a 10-year life. Created to regulate the ethical behavior of local politicians in England, the ethics of politics was undermined by the politics of ethics. Alan Lawton (Federation University Australia, Australia) and Michael Macaulay (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) analyze the life of the Standards Board initially through the lens of a life-cycle approach to organizations but find that a problem-cluster approach provides a sharper picture. Over its lifetime, the Standards Board faced a number of crises; its failure to resolve these crises and an unfavorable political climate led to its demise. Link to PAR Early View

Public Service Motivation Research: Lessons for Practice
Public service motivation research has proliferated in parallel with concerns about how to improve the performance of public service personnel. However, scholarship does not always inform management and leadership. Robert K. Christensen (Brigham Young University), Laurie Paarlberg (Texas A&M University) and James L. Perry (Indiana University, Bloomington) purposefully review public service motivation research since 2008 to determine the extent to which researchers have identified lessons for practice. The results of the investigation support several lessons—among them using public service motivation as a selection tool, facilitating public service motivation through cooperation in the workplace, conveying the significance of the job and building leadership based on public service values. These results are important because they offer evidence that the field is coalescing around tactics that managers and leaders can use to address enduring concerns about employee motivation in the public sector. They also prompt us to articulate ideas that can guide a tighter integration of research and practice moving forward. Link to PAR Early View

Research Article

Local Capitalism and Civic Engagement: The Potential of Locally Facing Firms
The twin forces of globalization and devolution have created administrative circumstances that strain the problem-solving capacity of local governments and increase the importance of nongovernmental processes and institutions. The literature suggests that locally owned firms are more likely to engender higher levels of civic engagement critical to buttressing that problem-solving capacity. This research adds an additional dimension, investigating to whom those firms sell and through which supply channels. Using survey results from hundreds of local firms across five study sites, Jill K. Clark (The Ohio State University) and Matthew Record (San Jose State University) demonstrate that locally facing firms—that is, firms that intentionally interface with community members and other local businesses—are associated with greater levels of civic and political engagement compared with locally owned firms that sell their products to customers elsewhere. Findings suggest that local governments should look beyond the local/nonlocal ownership binary to consider how private firms can be partners in serving and supporting their communities. Link to PAR Early View

Book ReviewsDanny Balfour, Editor

Assessing Obama's Domestic PolicyDavia C. Downey (Grand Valley State University) reviews Obama on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks (2016) by John D. Graham. In this book, the former Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs appointee under George W. Bush and current dean of Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs provides a comprehensive analysis of major hallmarks of Obama's administration, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Cash for Clunkers program, among many others. Link to PAR Early View

Race and the Study of Public AdministrationFrank Anechiarico (Hamilton College) reviews Liberalized Lynching: Building a New Racialized State (2016) by Daniel Kato. According to Anechiarico, Kato's contribution is to explain the misleading idea that lynching, especially in the South, was state sanctioned. What was the role and culpability of the federal government in lynching? Conventional wisdom focuses on low administrative capacity in Washington, D.C., alongside the complicity in the regime of white supremacy and in what Justice Joseph Bradley called the "war on race." Kato departs from these explanations to get to the core values of the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal administration. Link to PAR Early View

Grappling with the Long-Term Consequences of Slavery: A Critical Examination of Woodrow Wilson's Efforts to Legitimate Racial SegregationKarima A. Jackson (Rutgers University) reviews Racism in the Nation's Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson’s America (2013) by Eric S. Yellin. According to Jackson, Yellin examines the period following the Civil War, known as the Reconstruction Era, through the late 1920s, with a concentration on Woodrow Wilson's presidential administration (1913–21). In remarkably rare and eloquent fashion, Yellin succeeds at delivering a compelling narrative of how discrimination against African Americans permeated government employment. Link to PAR Early View

Call for Papers

Symposium: Understanding and Reducing Public Corruption
Globally corruption costs governments and businesses trillions of dollars each year. It distorts public policy objectives and damages trust. This makes for great difficulties for public administration; however, scholarly analysis of public corruption is meager, especially in public administration and related fields. This symposium seeks to better understand how corruption affects public administration and how public administration can mitigate corruption. It is intended to advance research and generate a comprehensive knowledge base on public corruption. Link to PAR Early View

To Imagine a World Where All Lives Truly Mattered, Brandi Blessett's commanding Guest Editorial in Public Integrity's May/June Issue (Vol 19 No 3), speaks to core concerns many have across the globe, and has sparked an international dialogue.

Read it online here and join the conversation about President Trump's election and the state of our democracy today.

As Blessett states, "The vitriol spewed against Black Lives Matter for speaking out against injustice by citizens, politicians and administrators alike further exposes the desire of the broader society to maintain the status quo or, better yet, for people of color to stay in their place. How else is one to explain the indifference of white society to systematic acts of aggression on unarmed individuals, indigenous populations, women, LGBTQ people and all 'othered' groups?"

Find your next career opportunity at publicservicecareers.org. This online job board is the perfect resource for making a career change or landing your first job in the public service. It lists dozens of positions in academia, government and the nonprofit sector. Below are just a few current listings.